


Into the Dark

by tatooedlaura



Series: Life [28]
Category: The X-Files
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-11 04:04:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8953042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatooedlaura/pseuds/tatooedlaura
Summary: He found reality in her voice and opening his eyes, spoke in a low thrum that rattled through her bones, “what did he say?”





	

He woke up to a hell of a charley horse and nearly toppled Scully to the ground, the only thing saving her was the side of the chair. She still got shoved aside, however, as he jumped up, attempting to massage his thigh while not falling into the balcony railing. Being mostly asleep didn’t help much, given he kept stumbling sideways, wincing as he rubbed.

Once she was able to pry her eyes open, she took charge, as she sometimes had to in these charley horse situations, “go lie on the bed, would you?”

Hunched over, she could see the tears glistening at the corner of his eyes, “I’ll never make it.”

Pity drove her to his side, taking his arm and keeping his steady while he hop-jumped to the bed, only to twist and drop like a rock on the mattress, fists clenched in white-knuckled agony, “fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.”

Grabbing hold of his aimlessly flailing arms which were trying desperately to get to his leg, she held them at his sides for a moment, “wait. For God’s sake, wait a minute and as a warning,” dodging his leg as he lifted it in a vain attempt to relieve the nightmare, “if you knee me in the mouth, I’m never going to share a bed with you again, clothed, unclothed or any variation therein.”

His leg stopped moving and she couldn’t help but smirk as she lay her hands on his thigh, “this will not be fun for you but suck it up, please and remember the kneeing thing.”

She pushed down hard on his muscle, knuckles digging in, twisting, turning, torturing the hell out of him while he could only focus on not groaning too loudly, desperately wanting to beg her to simply cut the leg off because it would be so much easier and probably less painful at the moment.

Scully ignored him, continued to minister to his leg until she finally felt the coiled tissue give way to pliability, the worst of the knots unraveling under her practiced hands. She felt him touch her, stopping her fingers momentarily, “wait, not so hard. It feels better now.”

Switching to a lighter touch, she kept up her massage, “it might feel better but if I stop now, it’ll just seize up again.”

Blissfully happy he didn’t want to die anymore, he let her do whatever she wanted, relishing in her hands on him until suddenly, he realized he was starting to enjoy it a little too much. Sitting up, he batted her away gently, “I’ll take it from here.”

Surprised he’d lasted this long with her in such close proximity to certain parts, she moved away without a word, keeping her grin to herself as she turned towards the balcony, checking her watch, “so, your little muscle spasm there woke us up before 6am. Who gets up before 6am on vacation?”

“Apparently, we do.” Still rubbbing, “sorry for the abrupt wakeup. Never had one that bad before.”

“Think you’ll be able to stand on it okay today? Kind of tough to surf with a bum leg.”

Standing, he put weight on it gingerly, wincing slightly but then nodding, “just need to walk a little. Loosen it up some more.”

Scully agreed, then caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror on the wall, “I was just about to suggest a walk but then I see that I resemble the bride of Frankenstein with this hair so I think I should shower first, then we go walk around and find some breakfast?”

Plucking at a few completely wild, red waves, “it’s the wind-blown, charley horse kind of hair-do. You make it look good.”

“When was your last eye appointment again?”

With a laugh, he pointed towards the bathroom, “go shower.”

&&&&&&&&

The more walking they did, the better his leg felt and, on Scully’s advice, he made sure to drink extra water, which apparently helps with muscle insanity. By the time they returned to the room a few hours later, he barely made it to the bathroom to pee, his bladder so full he was getting a little queasy. Not by her own choosing, Scully could hear him peeing … and peeing … and peeing … and peeing … through the closed door. Feeling a little saucy, she called out to him, “um, you’re coming up on a minute, Mulder. How much did you drink?”

Hearing the falter in the stream, she grinned when he called back to her, “go away. I don’t do well with interruptions.”

“Good to know.” She wiggled herself into her bathing suit in those few extra moments, just pulling up the straps when Mulder burst from the bathroom, about to make some kind of comment but he stopped dead in his tracks, sarcasm switching instantly to regret, “I’m always just a few seconds too late. I need to do my shit just a little faster and I should be good.”

“You goal in life is now to catch me changing?”

“No comment.”

Her radiant smile made him grin, “get your suit on while I go sunscreen.” And, because she was truly evil and devious, she gave him one minute then burst out of the bathroom, just in time to catch his bare white butt slide inside his swim trunks. He stumbled in a circle at the door opening, nearly taking out several pieces of furniture in the process of turning towards her. All he saw was her retreating form, hand waving over her shoulder, “that was much appreciated. Thank you.”

He stomped into the bathroom, grabbed her around the waist and hauled her wiggling form to the bed, where he tossed her, sending her bouncing to the other side of the mattress, “this is just the beginning, Dana Katherine Theresa Scully. Mark my words.”

Scully looked at him incredulously, “Theresa?”

“Yeah. I know your confirmation name. What are you gonna do about it?”

“I have got to limit the time you and my mother spend alone together. I’m surprised you don’t know how old I was when I got my first period.”

“12. I believe it was sometime in January.”

“Good God.”

Tickling the bottom of her bare foot, “come on. We have surfing to do.”

&&&&&&&&&&&&

The both dutifully ignored the fact that the doctor said he would call sometime today, having understood the fear and the time crunch and the distance from home. Scully brought her phone to the beach, against her inner voice telling her it could get stolen, destroyed, soaked, stepped on or melted. She piled towels on top of it and followed Mulder into the ocean, determined to enjoy her day.

Although, unspoken between them, they seemed to frequently get out of the water, claiming thirsty, sunscreen reapplication, feet were getting too wet. That last one was Scully’s sadly pathetic attempt to explain what in all seriousness needed no explanation and Mulder told her so, hand on her arm, “we’re just going to call it what it is.”

“Checking the phone?”

“Sand removal from hidden cracks.” Her scrunched face and eyebrow raise made him shrug, “I’ve had to do it every time I come up here and don’t tell me you haven’t.”

Wiggling a little for his benefit, “sure. Fine. Sand removal.”

The waves were big enough today that she began teaching him how to swim into them, dive under them and ride across them, belly flat on the board. He took to it much faster than she expected but even Mulder, with his new found love of ocean and wave, had to call it quits eventually, riding up on shore, Scully close at his heals.

As they trudged through the hot sand, then twisted to sit on the towels, “tomorrow, I think I should try to stand up.”

Not wanting him to hurry to much, “let’s see how big the waves are first, all right?”

He nodded, then picked up his towel, flinging the phone onto Scully’s lap accidently. He looked from it to her face, hesitantly reaching for it, “you want me to check?”

“No, actually. I think I’ll wait until we get back to the room. Ready to go?”

Even if he hadn’t been, he jumped back up beside her, ignoring the slight pull in his charley-horsed thigh, “yup. Why don’t you get our stuff together and I’ll go return the boards?”

Already gathering items, she nodded, soon making her way towards the hotel, Mulder a couple hundred feet ahead. Meeting in the elevator, they were back in the room after a silent ride, both heading to the balcony to drip dry a little before showering and changing. Scully pulled the cushion off the chair, tossing it to the ground so she could sit on the end of the bamboo seat without soaking anything. Mulder hesitated for all of half a second, then moved to sit behind her, feet on the ground, legs vee’d along hers.

“If he didn’t call, Mulder, we have to wait again.”

“I know and we will. We’ll wait as long as we need to. We’ll surf and eat and sleep and wait.”

Deciding that was the courageous statement she needed, she opened the phone and found a message icon waiting for her. She immediately handed the phone over her shoulder, “you listen, please.”

“I don’t want to hear something before you. What if they say something I don’t understand.” Taking the phone, he moved his arm beneath hers, holding it against her bare leg, “put it on speaker and we’ll listen together.”

He felt her cold hands as she took it, pressed a few buttons and then gripped his hand. All Mulder heard through the blood pounding in his brain and the whooshing in his ears was that she needed to call back before 5pm today.

Scully, who had been able to comprehend more than Mulder, immediately dialed the phone, putting on her best, detached, Scully voice, the one he despised most in the world. He couldn’t take it any longer and inching his head forward, rested against the back of hers, lips against her upper spine, just below the hated scar at the base of her skull.

He couldn’t hear the doctor on the other end of the line but Scully remained detached, giving away nothing in either inflection or response. His heart raced, then slowed, skipped then sped back up, the adrenaline from fear pouring into his system. He felt his arms moving closer around her middle. He felt himself scooting nearer. He felt his mouth kissing the remnant salt from her skin. He felt his world pinpointed to this very instant and he felt that if she were to die, he’d have no choice but to follow her into the dark.

“Mulder?”

He found reality in her voice and opening his eyes, spoke in a low thrum that rattled through her bones, “what did he say?”


End file.
